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Problem burning iMovie DVD

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poppi


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I have created an i Movie project with music and photos, have saved it to disc image and am trying to burn it to a DVD-R. In the past I opened disc utility, clicked burn, inserted a disc and it burned. This time after a "waiting for the drive" message the disc ejects with no burn.

Suggestions please

Thank you

poppi
 
harryb2448

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Poppi insert a DVD in and see if the optical drive reads it to check that end out. You may need something a little more fancier that Disk Utility. Download 'Burn' which is freeware and try that, opting to burn at the slowest speed. I use Roxio's Toast Titanium but at over $100 probably not worth the expenditure anymore with DVDs losing popularity.


http://burn-osx.sourceforge.net/Pages/English/home.html
 
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harryb2448 said:
Poppi insert a DVD in and see if the optical drive reads it to check that end out. You may need something a little more fancier that Disk Utility. Download 'Burn' which is freeware and try that, opting to burn at the slowest speed. I use Roxio's Toast Titanium but at over $100 probably not worth the expenditure anymore with DVDs losing popularity.

That seems to be the key. I inserted a blank DVD and after a short time it ejected. Tried another from the same spool with the same result. However I then inserted a blank CD-R and then a backup file CD-R and both were read successfully. I know I have used DVD-R discs from this batch in the past with no problem. What could have changed?

poppi
Click to expand...
 
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If I remember correctly DVD players/burners use two different lasers. One handles the CDs and the other handles the DVDs. It's possible that the laser which reads the CDa is still working while the other is not working.
 
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Slydude said:
If I remember correctly DVD players/burners use two different lasers. One handles the CDs and the other handles the DVDs. It's possible that the laser which reads the CDa is still working while the other is not working.
Click to expand...

Thank you slydude. The mystery deepens. I am fortunate to have two iMacs (my wife has the second). I tried the same experiment on the second - inserted a DVD-R and a CD-R with the same results. The DVD was ejected and the CD was readable. This would seem to indicate there is not a problem with the burner but with the DVD discs?

poppi
 
ferrarr

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If you go into "About This Mac", under the Apple icon, in the upper left corner, you can see information about your Mac. When the window pops up, click on System Report. When the System Report window opens look in the left column for Disc Burning and click on it. What does it say for durning types?
 
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ferrarr said:
If you go into "About This Mac", under the Apple icon, in the upper left corner, you can see information about your Mac. When the window pops up, click on System Report. When the System Report window opens look in the left column for Disc Burning and click on it. What does it say for durning types?
Click to expand...

Here is what it says:

MAT****A DVD-R UJ-875:

Firmware Revision: DB09
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipping Drive)
Cache: 2048 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -R DL, -RW, +R, +R DL, +RW
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, DVD-DAO
Media: To show the available burn speeds, insert a disc and choose View > Refresh

Checking the Mat****a home page it says the latest firmware revision is DB09 so it appears I am up to date?

The mystery is I have used these same DVDs in the past with no problem and now they won't work in EITHER of my iMac machines.

poppi
 
ferrarr

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Did you put a disc in while the System Profiler was up and go to View > Refresh? This would tell if the laser is reading the disc or not? Regardless, some disc are bad, I had, at one time, contacted a manufacturer about a lot of bad discs, in a 100pk spindle and they sent me a new one.
 
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ferrarr said:
Did you put a disc in while the System Profiler was up and go to View > Refresh? This would tell if the laser is reading the disc or not? Regardless, some disc are bad, I had, at one time, contacted a manufacturer about a lot of bad discs, in a 100pk spindle and they sent me a new one.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. Tried to follow your suggestion but am confused. FYI I am at 10.6.8 and the path to Disc burning is about this Mac > More info and then Disc burning under Hardware. When I click View > Refresh it just takes me back to the contents page.

A further mystery. I took the last DVD I had burned (September 2015) which came from the same spool of Verbatim DVD-R discs which are now giving me fits. I loaded it in the Mac and it opened with no problem. Does that make any sense?

As stated earlier I believe the optical drive firmware is up to date. Would it make any sense to download the "latest" firmware (same as the current) to see if that helps?

Thanks for your help

poppi
 
ferrarr

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The reason I am asking if you put a disk in is, then the optical drive will try to access the disc and tell you the read/write speeds available for that type of disc. This way you will know if the laser is reading the discs. Try writeable dvd's and cd's for confirmation.

After you put the disc in, go ahead and reopen System Profiler to see what it says now under Hardware > Disc Burning.
 
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ferrarr said:
The reason I am asking if you put a disk in is, then the optical drive will try to access the disc and tell you the read/write speeds available for that type of disc. This way you will know if the laser is reading the discs. Try writeable dvd's and cd's for confirmation.

After you put the disc in, go ahead and reopen System Profiler to see what it says now under Hardware > Disc Burning.
Click to expand...

OK I finally figured out what you are saying. First I went to the Disc burning and saw the following:

MAT****A DVD-R UJ-875:

Firmware Revision: DB09
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipping Drive)
Cache: 2048 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -R DL, -RW, +R, +R DL, +RW
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, DVD-DAO
Media: To show the available burn speeds, insert a disc and choose View > Refresh

I then put in a writable CD (which I know it recognizes), pressed view > refresh and got the following:

MAT****A DVD-R UJ-875:

Firmware Revision: DB09
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipping Drive)
Cache: 2048 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -R DL, -RW, +R, +R DL, +RW
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, DVD-DAO
Media:
Type: CD-R
Blank: Yes
Erasable: No
Overwritable: Yes
Appendable: Yes
Write Speeds: 8x, 24x

I repeated that for a DVD-R, pressed view > refresh but the disk ejected and the screen returned to this:

MAT****A DVD-R UJ-875:

Firmware Revision: DB09
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipping Drive)
Cache: 2048 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -R DL, -RW, +R, +R DL, +RW
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, DVD-DAO
Media: To show the available burn speeds, insert a disc and choose View > Refresh

Don't know if any of this makes sense. To refresh - the drive recognizes writable CD-R discs and written DVD-R discs but ejects blank DVD-R discs. I have exactly the same experience on my other iMac.

Really appreciate your help

poppi
 
ferrarr

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Did you run System Profiler on both machines and got the same result? That would be very strange if both machine stopped writing dvd's at the same time. maybe you should try a few more dvd's from that package or a different package before going any further?
 
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ferrarr said:
Did you run System Profiler on both machines and got the same result? That would be very strange if both machine stopped writing dvd's at the same time. maybe you should try a few more dvd's from that package or a different package before going any further?
Click to expand...

I am completely baffled by this whole thing. The DVD-Rs which are now failing worked perfectly well in the past. And yes, I have tried several discs from that spool all with the same result. I will buy some new discs tomorrow and give them a try. Can't think of anything else to do

Thanx for your help

poppi
 
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UPDATE - After endless on line research and reading about laser lens cleaners ad infinitum I stumbled on a post suggesting compressed air (on the assumption that dust was interfering with the reader). Tried that an voila - the disk mounted and I was able to burn my DVD. How relieved I was when I popped it into the DVD player and it was perfect. Thanks to all of you for trying to help

poppi
 
ferrarr

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Very strange that it affected both iMacs at the same time. Glad it's working now.
 

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